Archivist & Digital Project Lead, Southern Futures at CPA

In July 2021, Carolina Performing Arts launched Southern Futures at CPA, a new initiative to support the discovery and sharing of cultural artifacts and local histories that challenge entrenched narratives around racial equity, social justice, and the American South.  This project is intended as an outgrowth of Reckoning: Race, Memory and Reimagining the Public University, a campus-wide initiative of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Southern Futures at CPA is a 4-year, $2.7 million initiative supported by the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust that will include an artist research residency, thematically-aligned series programming, campus and community engagement programs, and other outputs centered on public access and co-creation.

The Archivist & Digital Project Lead will play a central role in realizing this vision by telling and documenting the story of Southern Futures at CPA through the conception, design, creation, and maintenance of an interdisciplinary digital archive and storytelling space that foregrounds artistic process as a form of scholarly research and scholarly research as a form of art.  This position will advise the Southern Futures Artist-in-Residence and CPA staff on how to tell historical and contemporary aural, musical, and visual Southern stories premised on life experience and primary resource research. In collaboration with CPA artists and campus partners, the Archivist & Digital Project Lead will identify and contextualize pertinent materials in the Southern Historical Collection, the Southern Folklife Collection, and other relevant UNC collections. In addition, they will work with artists, faculty members, students, community members, and CPA staff to create new materials that will represent the project as it develops. As the digital archive grows and changes in real time, the Archivist & Digital Project Lead will be tasked with promoting its utility as a pedagogical tool for the university and beyond. In essence, this position will communicate Southern Futures at CPA to UNC campus collaborators, our Triangle community, and researchers, artists, and our international network of performing arts peers.  The Southern Futures at CPA archive is intended to widen and diversify community engagement with cultural heritage data, providing a much-needed public resource to grow and guide a body of faculty, students, and lifelong learners in thoughtful exploration of the complex history and narratives of the American South.

This position will report to CPA’s Associate Director of Engagement and will contribute leadership, project management, and research expertise to the production of a collaborative multimodal archive while also supporting the overall goals and intended outcomes of CPA’s Southern Futures initiative.  Responsibilities of this role include asset curation, interpretation, and management; active and strategic efforts to engage the public with the archive, including outreach and collaboration with targeted stakeholder groups; and managing user education and access so that audiences across a wide range of backgrounds, skill sets, and accessibility needs feel welcome and able to interact with the Southern Futures archive.  The Archivist & Digital Project Lead will also be expected to advise and work closely the Southern Futures Artist-in-Residence, a cohort of artists and community members, UNC faculty, and staff colleagues within CPA and throughout campus.

The individual who holds this role will be most successful if they bring a combination of some or all of the following attributes to the position: experience in the tools, methods, and production of digital scholarship and/or online publishing; a knowledge of current and emerging digital technologies in data management, access, and preservation; knowledge of web and interactive design; and/or working knowledge of data collection and analysis.

Minimum Education:  Bachelor’s degree and one year of experience related to the area of assignment; or equivalent combination of training and experience. All degrees must be received from appropriately accredited institutions.

Essential Qualifications:

  • Excellent communication and collaboration skills
  • Knowledge of and experience with interdisciplinary and applied/public facing projects and programs
  • Diverse and demonstrated experience in public education  
  • Knowledge of and experience with web and interactive design, digital media production, art practice, or other forms of creative content development
  • Working knowledge of archival materials and methods
  • Demonstrated understanding of and experience with project management, excellent organizational skills, and effectiveness in balancing multiple assignments and projects
  • Ability to learn and integrate new tools and technologies to achieve project goals and to stay abreast of new and emerging technologies and standards in the field
  • Ability to build internal stakeholder relationships across the organization with staff, senior leaders, and team members in a manner that contributes to a values-driven culture
  • Proven ability to connect one’s own work and goals to the broader mission and values of an organization
  • High energy and passion for CPA’s mission and the vision for Southern Futures at CPA 

Preferred Qualifications:

  • 2 or more years of experience related to the area of assignment 
  • Interest and/or experience in digital humanities

For full position details and requirements, and to apply, please visit https://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/196497.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, race, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or status as a protected veteran.


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